Monday, March 26, 2018
Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a
heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ
will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the
living God. For by the power of the
eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our
sins. That is why he is the one who
mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can
receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the
penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
Hebrews 9:13-15(NLT)
If you tried to
explain the faith we hold in Jesus, and the extreme gratitude we must have for
his gift of atoning for our sins on the cross, you would be hard-pressed to do
better than these few sentences. Christ
offered himself as a perfect sacrifice…a new covenant…we can receive eternal
inheritance…set free!
I read a quote
attributed to Nadia Bolz-Weber last week about our faith:
The
Christian faith, while wildly misrepresented in so much of American culture, is
really about how God continues to reach into the graves we dig for ourselves
and pull us out, giving us new life, in ways both dramatic and small.
Nadia was trapped
in that kind of grave-life that was angry at everything, and yet offered no
hope. Miraculously touched by God’s
grace in Christ, she has become a refreshingly honest voice for the younger
generation (and, truthfully ALL generations) as she does-away with religious
trappings and the pomposity that normally accompanies the stuffiness of
religion. And she does it in favor of
blowing the clouds of religious smoke away from a clear understanding of life
at the foot of the cross.
Holy week can
be that for us. Holy week should
be intense in many ways:
·
Anticipating Easter
·
Dreading the crush of extra
activities
·
Wishing for more than egg hunts and
bunny appearances and dull services and sermons that touch nothing.
Holy week should
be more than these;
·
it ought to blow the doors off minivan
religion in favor of a bloody Corvette cross that
washes our lives every whit clean.
·
it ought to be the nervousness of a
six year-old waiting for his first big birthday party, or a ride on the roller
coaster.
·
it ought to be Christmas, Easter and
birthday party all rolled into one.
·
it ought to be execution day, and we
are the guest of honor. The repentance
of the holding cell on death row should have prepared us in the last 6 weeks
for the piercing sting of nails in our hands and feet. The idea of being crucified with Christ
should have sunk-in by now, and our whole nervous system must needs be set
on edge with anticipation of the cross.
It ought to be
this and more as we awaken from the bleak darkness of midwinter.
For You Today
Do we get the idea
that preparing for Easter involves much more than shopping for a new outfit and
laying-in a fresh supply of Cadbury eggs?
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 
